A Glimpse Inside Hezbollah

“In Lebanon, Hezbollah is both everywhere and nowhere,” the photographer Moises Saman, whose picture accompanies Dexter Filkins’s piece on Hezbollah in this week’s issue of the magazine, told me. In addition to its military presence, Hezbollah holds a significant number of seats in the Lebanese parliament, yet “most of the leadership and the military wing live secretive lives and detest speaking to journalists, let alone being photographed,” Saman said. However, he was nonetheless able to capture its presence in his photographs of the villages and suburbs that surround Beirut. “The conflict in Syria has given weight to the clandestine nature of this movement,” he added. “Hezbollah’s direct involvement has led to new martyrs, who are buried privately and quickly, making this assignment that much more difficult.” These photos afford a glimpse of the rarely seen but increasingly present resistance.

A banner depicting Hezbollah fighters killed in action during the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon.